🗂️Keep in Mind The Government Is Trying to Backpedal on the TikTok Ban

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If you’ve been on TikTok over the past few days, you’ve no doubt witnessed your favorite creators saying their goodbyes and telling you where you can find them next. With an impending ban on the social media app set to take effect in the U.S. on Sunday, it seems like there’s little the platform’s users can do except wait and hope that the Supreme Court, which heard arguments from both TikTok’s lawyers and the Justice Department on Friday, strikes it down.

However, with TikTok now threatening to shut down altogether (though the ban would simply keep it from being listed on app stores, the company proposed taking the nuclear option) and Americans fleeing to another Chinese app as a replacement-slash-act of protest, various government officials—independent of the Supreme Court—are looking to change course.

From the outside, it all seems like a big game of chicken. First, the U.S. government—aiming either to protect your data and national security (as it claims) or simply to pump up the American tech industry by disrupting the popular China-backed platform—demanded TikTok parent ByteDance sell the service to an American company. Then, ByteDance, not wanting to lose its cash cow, called the U.S.'s bluff and refused to sell. Now, American TikTokers are showing their reluctance to use homegrown replacements like Instagram Reels, leaving the government with a few choices: It can pursue the ban and hope the public or ByteDance gets on board, or it can try to salvage the situation and delay or nix the ban so as to not further upset voters and drive them into the arms of other Chinese apps.

While it's too soon to predict exactly what will happen, working to avoid the Sunday shutdown is exactly what a few key power players are doing.

Biden and Trump have both changed their stances​

One of the most surprising people said to be changing their mind about a TikTok ban is President Biden, who signed it into law and has only a few days remaining in his term. Speaking to NBC News, “three people familiar with the discussions” indicated the Biden administration is currently working on ways to keep TikTok from going dark on Sunday.

“Americans shouldn’t expect to see TikTok suddenly banned on Sunday,” an administration official told the outlet, saying that Biden’s team is “exploring options” to keep that from happening when the law goes into effect on Jan. 19. It’s all a bit vague—certainly a ban is exactly what we were expecting—but a White House official did clarify that the options being considered wouldn’t include deferring enforcement of the ban, as the administration doesn’t “believe we have the authority to do that.”

Incoming President Trump also now opposes the ban, but may show less reluctance to act. The Washington Post reports Trump is considering penning an executive order that would delay the ban’s enforcement by 60 to 90 days. Such an extreme measure would perhaps be Trump’s only play here, as the ban is set to go into effect one day before he takes office. Trump's stance marks a similar change in attitude to President Biden's: During his first term, Trump signed an executive order that attempted to force TikTok to shut down operations in the U.S., something the company avoided by partnering with U.S.-based company Oracle to protect the data of American users.

A bill to save TikTok (for now)​

Realistically, the most stable way to get the ban struck down, save by the Supreme Court, would be for the members of congress who voted for it to change their minds. The biggest governmental backswing we’ve seen on the TikTok ban so far—or at least the biggest one that doesn’t rely on hearsay and anonymous sources—would be a new bill from Democratic Senator Ed Markey. Introduced this week, Markey's bill would extend the deadline for the ban by 270 days, giving TikTok more time to find a buyer or provide lawmakers an opportunity to reevaluate the situation.

“In four days, TikTok goes dark,” Markey said while introducing the legislation. “My bill just says, we need more time.”

As part of his justification for the bill, Markey argued that TikTok has been “central to our economy and the way in which we communicate,” arguing that the communities its creators and small businesses have established there “cannot be replicated on another app.”

“We need time to have a deeper conversation about how to address the national security risks caused by Bytedance’s ownership of TikTok.” Markey continued. “We need time to understand the ban’s implication on TikTok’s creators and users.”

Perhaps most exciting for those opposed the ban, Markey also added “We need time to consider alternative ideas,” hinting at a future where Congress abandons ideas of a ban altogether.

This bill also marks something of a change in attitude from Markey, who originally spoke out against banning the platform but nonetheless voted for the current ban anyway—although it should be noted that the ban was included in a bill also providing aid to Ukraine and Israel.

For his part, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed to continue "working to keep TikTok alive."

Support for the ban remains​

Any legislative action to prevent a shutdown would need to move quickly, assuming the Supreme Court upholds the ban, but while both the executive and legislative branches are considering backpedaling on the ban across party lines, some in government are sticking to their original decision.

“They had all the time in the world,” Republican Senator Rick Scott said. “They’ve had an opportunity to sell it to make sure the Chinese government doesn’t control it and they decided not to do that.”

For now, all eyes are still on the Supreme Court. Yet even if the judicial branch upholds the ban, it seems the game of chicken might ultimately end with TikTok continuing to operate as usual, and without a third party like Mark Zuckerberg's Meta or Microsoft holding the reins.

As we wait to see how things play out, I’ll join with the choir saying they would rather learn Mandarin than watch an Instagram Reel.
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